Are the Titles for your Web Content up to Scratch?

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by: mediarun
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Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 Time: 7:53 AM
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With any type of writing, short or long, a good title is crucial in convincing your intended audience to read on. When it comes to web content, the need for a succinct and descriptive title takes on an extra dimension, as it is needed for search engine optimisation (SEO) and usability purposes too.

In terms of digital marketing, a title has two separate though related meanings. Firstly, it is the header at the top of your article, blog or web page that introduces the content. Secondly, ‘title' can refer to the all-important title meta tags, which determine what text will be shown in the navigation bar of the user's browser, and to head the description of the content in the search engine results pages.

Titles and website optimisation

The subject of titles was covered by Google recently on their official blog in a post entitled ‘Better page titles in search results' (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/01/better-page-titles-in-search-results.html). In it, Google's Webmaster Trends, analyst Pierre Far says: "Page titles are an important part of our search results: they're the first line of each result and they're the actual links our searchers click to reach websites."

He explains that webmasters, or the SEO agency that handles their content, should aim to: "…write unique, descriptive page titles... to describe to searchers what the page is about."

However, in instances where Google's algorithms judge that the webmaster has not done a good job with the title, they may simply replace it altogether.

Google offers web users alternative titles

"A title using simply the word ‘Home' is not really indicative of what the page is about," says Far. "Another common issue we see is when a webmaster uses the same title on almost all of a website's pages, sometimes exactly duplicating it... We also try to replace unnecessarily long or hard-to-read titles with more concise and descriptive alternatives."

In these instances where Google thinks it can do a better job, it will generate an ‘alternative title' automatically, "to make it easier for our users to recognise relevant pages."

This latter point is particularly relevant when it comes to titling your web pages. Your primary goal when filling out the title tags should be to enable users to instantly tell if your content is what they are looking for. And if you don't at least attempt this, Google may take a stab on your behalf. And even Google gets it wrong sometimes…

About the Author

Mediarun helps companies find customers online by focusing on enhancing online visibility. As an SEO Agency based in central London we specialise in performance (SEO), Pay Per Click PPC management, Social Media Optimisation (SMO), Mobile marketing, website optimisation and design related services.